Card Stock printing on a LaserJet MFP M426fdw

[jmarsiglia]

Afternoon,

Yes I know that the MFP M426fdw can print on card stock, my question is for how long? I print menus daily on card stock so it will go through a lot of use, I'm just curious how long the printer will withstand 100 pages a day before it burns out? I know it will happen eventually, they always do but are we thinking months or years?

Thanks in advance!

JMarsiglia

[Repairatrooper]

There are a couple of factors. Based on our field experience we tell customers buying a M426 level product that the normal expected life is around 100,000 pages before the fuser will likely fail. Keep in mind these figures are based on a company history of over 25 years and we keep records of everything. The biggest factors that will shorten the life is not necessarily that you are printing card stock, but if the media is narrower than standard 8.5 wide paper. Narrower media will cause the edges of the fuser to over heat and this accelerates failure of the fuser. Yes the printers will slow down to adjust but that is not 100% accurate.

[jmarsiglia]

So as long as the paper is the normal width, it should print another 75,000 (I've got 25,000 on my counter) pages on card stock?

I was under the impression (honestly not sure where I heard this) the mechanism that loads the paper can't handle picking up the heavier weight so thats why the printers burn out quicker.

If correct, this makes me happy because laser jet toner is so much cheaper than the ink jet i'm currently using.

Thanks!

[AlS77]

Yes, give or take, the fuser should last around that long. The main part that will wear out sooner and often will be the pickup/feed rollers as they have direct contact with the paper/media and wear out quickly. You'll notice paper misfeeds or jams as they become worn and slick. That being said, the rollers are easily replaced, and the fuser is also replaceable by a tech if necessary as it requires a bit of printer disassembly to replace, but isn't terribly difficult.

You don't need to worry much about the mechanism that loads the paper as it is really pretty durable and I've not seen many issues with any model printer where they fail except after years of use or some unusual occurrence. As long as your paper is within the printer specifications, it should work well, but I've had some customers have issues sometimes with print quality on card stock where the card stock was not designed for use in laser printers or they exceeded the paper spec of the printer. But, if yours is working well now, you should be good.

Link for paper specs for your printer:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04813259